


The Reclaimers

by whiteduck6



Category: Z Nation (TV)
Genre: Autism, Cults, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, I just wanted to make something a little lighter and happier, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Misunderstandings, Team as Family, anyway, autistic 10k, maybe it's a little cracky, some uhhhhh gratuitous humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-17 08:29:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16091861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteduck6/pseuds/whiteduck6
Summary: A group calling themselves the Reclaimers has taken an entire city block. They seem like the perfect community, but that's a warning sign in this world.





	The Reclaimers

**Author's Note:**

> small brain: writing your own original novel  
> big brain: re-reading your own original novel  
> galaxy brain: writing fan fiction

They’d taken an entire city block. 

They called themselves the Reclaimers, and they’d taken a city block in the middle of Boston. It was a pretty average layout with three office buildings and a shoe store. There was twenty-four people living there, not including 10k and the others. 

It was walled in with cars tipped on their sides, so the zees can’t get in. But it didn’t stop them from scratching at the metal at all hours of the day, their endless chorus of groans providing a haunting background music to the people living there.

They stumbled across it on a scouting trip, when they settled down for the night and realized that there was lights coming from a few blocks away. They ended up on a rooftop that provided a good line of sight for the block’s snipers. 10k signalled them with a little pocket mirror Cassandra provided and a flashlight, and they distracted the zombies near their main entrance so that they could get in.

10k had collapsed onto the bed they provided as soon as the door was shut behind him. He slept like a rock. 

He’d woken up still fully dressed, his mouth stale and his whole body feeling hot and dry, with his arms wrapped around his backpack. The canvas had pressed into his cheek in the night, leaving a pattern. 

He staggered out of his room after rubbing dried drool off the corner of his mouth, grinding the heels of his hands into his eyes in a valiant attempt to wake up more. He bumped into someone in the hall, and before his brain caught up, he’d grabbed the hunting knife from his sheath and had the tip of it pressed against the underside of the body’s head hard enough to draw blood.

There was a feminine shriek and a shatter of porcelain. 10k flinched away instinctively and as he opened his eyes, he saw a petite woman holding her throat with both her hands. She had shaggy hair grown out to her shoulders, and was wearing a button up shirt and a long skirt. There was a shattered plate on the ground and the remains of scrambled eggs, diced fried potatoes and ham. A glass was abandoned on the floor with water spilled around it. 

“A—“ 10k cleared his throat after hearing how hoarse and sleepy it sounded. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, smoothing her hands over her skirt. “I’m so sorry, I’ll get something else,” 

“No, that’s fine,” 10k said quickly. He hated eggs. In any form. One of the good things about the apocalypse — and they were few and far between — was that no one forced him to eat eggs anymore. 

“We have other things,” she said, “we have bacon, hash browns, omelettes—“  
“T-those are all just the same things you had,” 10k muttered, running his nails along the strap of his gun. “Really, I’m good. I have food in my bag.”

“If you insist,” she said, still sounding unconvinced. “The rest of your friends are on the second floor.”

10k brushed past her, trying not to draw too much attention, and stepped into the elevator, jamming his thumb against the 2 button until the joint hurt. 

The second floor took him quite a while to reach. He glanced up at the number on the little screen and saw that he was on the eleventh floor. 

_Why would they put me so far from the others?_

He waited for the elevator to stop and stepped out of it into a room bustling with energy. He took a quick look out one of the windows to see that it had to be at least midday.

“10k!” Cassandra called from somewhere across the room. “10k, over here!”

He followed her voice to a long brushed-steel lunch table where the others were sitting. On the far side were Addy, Mack, and Cassandra, and Roberta, Murphy, and Doc were on the close side. He hovered uncomfortably by the table. 

“There’s food over there,” Addy said, her mouth full. She pointed to a buffet-style setup, mostly with just the same food he had been offered earlier. 

“I’m okay,” he muttered, digging in his bag. He came up with a granola bar — those were always a safe bet, texture-wise — and unwrapped it, trying not to look too conspicuous, standing beside a table, not eating the offered food. 

Thankfully, no one seemed too worried. His group were the only ones eating — everyone else was moving around carrying boxes, sorting packets of what 10k assumed were seeds, or reloading guns. He finished off his granola bar and shoved the wrapper in his back pocket reflexively. 

“So, uh,” he said, too quietly for anyone to hear. He cringed a little and tried again. “So, uh, what’s the deal here?”

“They’ve pulled up the majority of the road outside,” Roberta said, taking a delicate bite of eggs, “and they’re planting crops in it. They have chickens and pigs, but no cows. They’re looking for one today, doing a scouting mission. You interested?”

“No, I’m good,” 10k said quickly. The last thing he wanted was to go on a scouting trip with a bunch of strangers. “Um, what are you guys up to?”

“I’m gonna help with the weapons cache,” Addy said, tearing apart a piece of ham with her teeth. “I think I’ll probably strong-arm Mack into doing that with me.”

“I’ll just see where they need me,” Cassandra said.

“Remind me to avoid you,” Murphy muttered. “Jesus, I just want to sleep for a week.”

“Excuse me!” Someone touched 10k’s arm and he nearly jumped out of his skin. He whirled around to see a man maybe a few years older than him, with a shaved head. “Are you a sniper?”

“Y-yeah,” 10k said belatedly.

“Awesome. We’re in short supply. We need you on the roof.”

“Uh—“ 10k turned back to the table. 

“Get outta here,” Doc said, dismissing him with a wave of his hand. “I’ll be wherever the oxy is.”

The man slapped 10k’s back with an alarming amount of force and it was only due to the fact that he was in a crowded room that he didn’t squirm out from under the man’s hand and disappear into the night.

“Let’s go up there, shall we?” The man grinned. “I’m Mike, by the way. I’m a sniper, too. We guard the perimeter. One of the advantages of living in an office building is we have one helluva watch tower.”

Was it 10k’s imagination, or was he talking a weird amount?”

“I’m 10k,” he muttered, keeping his eyes on the ground as Mike led him to the elevator he had just gotten off of. It let out a disconcerting groan and for the second time in as many minutes, 10k wanted to run away and never come back. 

“That’s kind of a weird name,” Mike said, and 10k cut his eye at Mike’s boots. 

“Mike’s kind of a weird name,” he mumbled, not really sure what a better comeback would be. 

Mike barked out a harsh laugh that bounced off the walls of the elevator like a ricocheting bullet and 10k took a deep breath, sliding a hand into his pocket where he kept a cleaned pasta sauce lid. It was the kind of lid that had a seal you could pop back and forth, and after he had eaten the sauce (it wasn’t one of his favourite apocalypse meals) he had rinsed off the lid and kept it for times of stress.

This was one of them.

The thick fabric of his pants thankfully kept the noise muffled as he clicked the little freshness seal as fast as he could. 

He couldn’t get to the roof fast enough.

—

It was a hot day out. The roof was some kind of rubbery black substance that 10k didn’t know the name of, and the heat radiated off the roof and back up onto 10k. He suddenly wished he’d just left well enough alone and blended in. 

“Just set yourself up anywhere along that wall,” Mike said, pointing to his left. “Don’t fall over.” He laughed.

“I won’t,” 10k said.

“Anyway, your shift is done in four hours. We do four on, four off shifts, but we have certain people to take night shifts so we can all stay well rested. Does that work?”

10k tried not to sigh too heavily. “Sounds good.” This sounded like the most boring place in the entire block. He settled onto his stomach, hissing a little at the hot roof as he unfolded his bipod and looked down his scope. 

“I’ll leave you to it, then?” Mike said. “On the other walls are Stacy, Emma, and Scott. Ask them if you have any questions.”  
10k didn’t respond, and didn’t look back for several minutes. By the time he glanced behind him, Mike was gone.

He let go of his gun, leaning it against the roof as he rested his chin in his hands. He could see tiny specks of people moving around below him, working in the dirt or with the animals or watching the wall. 10k sighed and glanced around at him, making sure no one was looking before dragging his bag around to his front and pulling out a book.

He didn’t really get the chance to read much these days, but there were no zombies at the wall in his field of vision. He was reading _The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ , which Doc had told him to read. It was weird and confusing, and he felt like every joke was an in-joke, but Doc told him to read it, so he read it. 

He managed to get through a few chapters before he heard someone whistle sharply. “Pay attention!” A woman said. 

_I gotta get out of here._

As quietly as he could, 10k put his book away, folded up his gun, and stood up. He crept across the roof, the other three people not even aware of his presence, it seemed. He hurried to the stairwell where the elevator was located and hurried down the steps as the door hissed shut behind him. 

Fourteen flights of stairs later, he arrived at the main floor. He kept his eyes down and didn’t make too big a spectacle of himself as he brushed past people on his way out the front door. 

No one even gave him a second glance.

He carried on this way as he scanned the crowds, looking for anyone he would know. He spotted Cassandra turning over dirt with a pitchfork and he hurried over to her. 

“Need any help?” He asked.

She immediately set him on gardening duty, and although he was surrounded by the clamour of people, and the hard work had him dripping with sweat, and he got dirt everywhere, it was leagues better than being by himself on the hot roof, zee-watching.

“Didn’t that guy want you to do something?” Cassandra asked him as they dumped fist-sized chunks of rubble into a wheelbarrow. 

“Yeah, I guess,” 10k muttered. “It was boring. There was four people watching walls that there were already, like, seven guards for. There really wasn’t any need. I don’t know, I was getting restless.”

Cassandra looked at him for a moment but shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me,” she said, hoisting a shard of asphalt with two hands. “S’long as you’ve got my back.”

“‘Course,” he said, dusting his hands off on his pants. “You and the others.”

“Even Murphy?” Cassandra smirked. 

“Unfortunately,” 10k laughed.

—

10k wasn’t bothered by anyone until the sun was beginning to set. Someone grabbed him by the shoulder. “Hey, man, what the hell?”

10k instinctively threw an elbow back. It sailed through the air and someone grabbed his shoulder and his wrist, wrenching them behind his back. Cassandra drew her gun and pulled the hammer back, and everyone in the vicinity went very quiet and very still.

“What are you trying to pull, ditching us today?” A woman hissed in his ear. 10k slowly dragged in a breath through his nose. He opened his hands as much as he could and tried to resist the urge to just slither out of her arms. He was pretty sure he would dislocate his shoulder if he tried that. 

“I—“ he tried to speak, but her hands were digging into his shoulder and pain was radiating down his arm and her hot breath down his neck were all getting to be A Lot. 

“You endangered _all_ of us today. You can’t do that. Get inside, Mike’ll deal with you.”

“Wait,” Cassandra said, putting away her gun. “Wait, I’ll go with you.”

“No,” the woman said. 10k still wasn’t able to see her face. “He can go alone.”

She shoved him in the direction of the door and he rubbed his hands together, the scratch of callouses rubbing against each other grounding him a little. He turned back and saw an angry blonde woman with a shaved head similar to Mike’s. 

He only glanced at her for a second, enough to get an idea of what she looked like so as to avoid her in the future and hurried through the glass doors leading into the building.

Everyone got very quiet as soon as he stepped through the doors. He immediately stuck to the wall, weaving between the people even as they valiantly tried to look at him. 

“Hey, Ten,” Mike called. 10k had a sinking suspicion he was talking to him but pointedly didn’t answer. 

“Ten!” Mike said again, from closer this time. 10k picked up the pace a little, making a beeline for the stairwell.

“Hey! I’ve been calling you!” Mike laughed as he grabbed 10k’s shoulder. _If one more person touches me I’m swear . . ._

“That’s not my name,” 10k muttered, not looking at Mike even as he swerved around trying to make eye contact.

“Oh, you go by 10k?”

“Yes,” 10k said through gritted teeth. _Like I told you this morning._

“Sorry about that!” Mike said, grinning brightly. “Anyway, we have to talk. Do you mind?” Mike gestured to the elevator but didn’t release 10k’s shoulder. 

“Oh, I’ve actually got a headache,” 10k said, “do you mind if I stop by your clinic quickly? I get migraines and I’m getting an aura . . .”

He’d never gotten a migraine in his life, but his pa had. He’d described them in graphic detail when 10k had made the mistake of asking. 

“Really?” Mike said, his eyebrows furrowing together like he was worried. “Of course. Do you just need a Tylenol or something stronger?”

“I just need to see what you have . . .” he muttered, massaging the bridge of his nose. He glanced at the elevator panel as Mike shuffled him into it. The clinic was on the third floor.

“I can go from here,” 10k said, “I’ll meet you in my room, okay?”

“Are you sure?” Mike said. 10k nodded, trying to look as pained as possible (it wasn’t hard around Mike) and stepped out of his line of vision.

The clinic wasn’t too hard to find — they had used so many antibacterial cleaners that 10k could smell it down the hall. He popped his head in and found a man in loose cargo pants and a stained shirt going through the cabinets noisily. 

“Who are you?” The man asked. 

“Who are _you_?” 10k shot back.

“David,” the man said, “I’m getting my wife some pain pills. What are you doing here?”

10k shrugged. “Looking around.” It wasn’t technically a lie. 

“Oh, hey!” Doc said, stepping around the corner. “Who’re you?” He said, turning to David.

David introduced himself again and explained why he was here, seeming a lot more tense than before. 

“Don’t take too much,” Doc laughed, clapping him on the shoulder. “What are you doing here, kid?”  
“Eh, just looking to see if you guys need any help.”

“S’pretty quiet, actually,” Doc said, pulling on his beard a little bit. “These people are real good at not gettin’ hurt. Maybe it’s the walls.”  
“Probably,” 10k muttered, tapping the fingers of his right hand against his left palm. “You mind if I hang out here? I’m avoiding someone.”

Doc barked out a laugh. “Kid, you just came to the expert on avoiding people. What did you do to her?”

“Oh, it’s Mike, actually, he’s been annoying me all day . . .” 10k sighed, leaning against a gurney.

Doc’s eyes about popped out of his head. “M-Mike?”

“Yeah,” 10k said, “has he talked to you? Jesus, don’t agree to anything he says. Just keep walking.”

“W-well,” Doc stammered, “if he slept with you, he’s a little young for me, don’t you think?”

10k paused and looked up at Doc, who seemed to be looking anywhere but 10k’s eyes.

David moved in the corner of his eye, and 10k remembered he was still here. He looked like he wanted to crawl out of his skin.

“He didn’t sleep with me,” 10k said, “I’ve only been here a day.”

Doc breathed out heavily, pressing a fist to his chest. “God help me, kid, you almost gave me a heart attack!”

“What? Are you okay?” 10k took a few steps towards him. 

“Yeah, I just . . . misread the situation. No, no, stay here. Don’t worry about him.”

“I should . . . be going,” David said, turning to leave.

“Wait, what did you come for?” Doc asked. 

“Oh, it doesn’t matter—“ David looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.

“Painkillers? They keep the good stuff locked up, let me get you some.”

10k crossed his arms over his chest, squeezing as tightly as he could as the air in the room grew heavy and pungent with tension. 

“Here you go,” Doc announced cheerily a few moments later, depositing a little baggie of pills into David’s hand. “Those have a real kick to ‘em, so don’t be afraid to cut ‘em up into halves. Or even thirds, if you want to make ‘em last. Oh, and, you didn’t get ‘em from me. I don’t think I have the authority to dispense that stuff.” Doc laughed heartily as David continued to look pale and uneasy.

“I should really be going now,” David said, scuttling out of the room. Doc waved him off and then turned to 10k as soon as the door was shut. 

“You know it’s fine if you’re gay, right?” 

“I’m not gay,” 10k assured him. 

“Okay, okay,” Doc put his hands up. 10k was beginning to empathize with David’s discomfort. “But if you are, it’s fine. Alright?”

“I’m just . . . I’m just gonna . . .” 10k started taking his gun apart. 

“I’ll be in the back if you need me,” Doc said.

The tension in the air began to dissipate quickly. 10k was infinitely grateful for the easy friendship between him and Doc — friends you really trusted weren’t easy to come by these days, and were even more infrequent for him. 

Before meeting Roberta and her team, he had spoken to maybe three people during the whole of the apocalypse. 

He cleaned his gun meticulously, scrubbing every tiny crevice within an inch of its life. He stopped halfway through to eat a packet of fruit gummies — not his favourite, but leagues better than having to go into the communal kitchen and face other people.

He had just screwed his silencer back on when the door opened. 10k looked up, not really sure who he was expecting other than Mike.

Of course, it was Mike. 

“Hey! You!” Mike snapped, striding inside. “I’m getting sick of this. I’m not going to freakin’ kill you for skipping out on watch duty, but the others might!”

“I wasn’t skipping,” 10k said, backing up as Mike approached him. “You had more than enough guards. I made myself useful, I helped Cassandra in the garden—“

“The only way we keep this place safe is if we have more than enough guards,” Mike hissed, and 10k didn’t want Doc to interfere but he did at the same time. “You got that? Everyone’s got a job here, and they stick to those jobs.”

“Lay off him, man,” Doc drawled from the back room. “He’s just a kid.”

Mike looked at 10k intensely for a few moments. 

“You need to shave your hair,” he said suddenly.

“What?” 10k yelped, putting a hand to his head. “No, it’s fine, it’s fine.”

“No, you really do,” Mike said, “because you’re too skilled to do work inside the walls. You’re going to help us reclaim more of the city, and hair is just another thing a zombie can grab.”

“You’re not making the others shave their hair!” 10k protested as he backed himself into a corner. Before the apocalypse, he had avoided haircuts at all costs because the hairdressers would insist on using the clippers on the back of his neck. The buzzing rattled all down his spine and in his teeth, and was easily the worst part of getting a haircut.

He had started cutting his own hair at fourteen, much to his pa’s chagrin.

“We actually are,” Mike said, “Addy, Roberta, and Mack are going out into the field. Anyone who leaves these walls has to have shaved hair, no piercings of any kind, tight clothes and no bag other than a backpack.”

Doc laid a hand on Mike’s shoulder. “Come on, surely you don’t need to be that neurotic about it,” he said, trying and failing to crack a smile. Mike looked away, and 10k slithered past him and darted into the hall. 

“Get back here!” Mike called as 10k ducked into the elevator and pressed the button to close the doors frantically. 

He hit the 2 button, hoping he would find the others there. If he couldn’t, he could always hop out a window and try to make it out the wall.

He bounced on the balls of his feet as tinny muzak played through the elevator’s speakers. He could feel the day catching up with him. His clothes were too scratchy, he could feel every strange indent and bump in his shoes, and he was seriously considering shooting the elevator’s speakers out so he could have silence.

He managed to get to the second floor, but when the doors opened, Mike was waiting. He lunged at the same time that 10k ducked and rolled and 10k hit the ground running, booting it to the dining room he had been in earlier. 

Sure enough, Cassandra was in there, along with some of the people they had been gardening with earlier. 

“Cassandra!” He panted, running up to her and trying to look like he wasn’t hiding behind a tiny slip of a girl. “Cassandra, we should go.”

“Like, upstairs?” She asked, taking a bite of salad. 

“No, like, we should go. Out. We should leave. They’re really weird here, they—“

Mike strolled into the room looking content as could be. He mulled around casually as 10k’s anxiety ramped up to eleven. He had a couple light exchanges before making his way over to where Cassandra was. 

Cassandra was good at reading people. She wrapped an arm around 10k’s shoulders, squeezing hard as she tucked her head near his. 

“Look busy,” she whispered. “He won’t bother us if he thinks we don’t want to be heard.”

10k nodded, the rustle of his hair against Cassandra’s creating a pleasant static noise. Mike looked over at them and Cassandra turned her face right into 10k’s, laughing in a breathy way that made everyone in the vicinity look the other direction.

“Cassie, do you mind helping me with something?” Mike asked. Cassandra froze, maybe at the nickname, maybe at the fact that they’d been singled out despite every effort not to be. 

“My name’s Cassandra,” she said, keeping her arm around 10k but turning to look at Mike.

“You don’t like Cassie? It’s kind of cute.”  
“Don’t call me Cassie.”

“Okay, okay,” Mike said. “Anyway, can you help me carry some stuff up? It’s just outside.”

“I’m with my boyfriend right now, so . . .” 10k was under no delusions that Cassandra was into him. She hadn’t hidden that she was a lesbian. 

But Mike didn’t know that.

“Can I just borrow you for a second? Just a minute?”

Cassandra tensed, and 10k was preparing to fight his way out when someone thudded down the stairs and barrelled into the room. It was Addy, and she was holding one of her dreadlocks in her hand. 

“Tell me they’re not pitching this ‘let’s shave our heads’ thing to you too,” she pleaded.

There were more footsteps and Addy pulled out her bat. Everyone gave her a wide berth as she shoved the dreadlock into her pocket and whirled around to face the door. 

“What the hell?” Cassandra asked. “It’s a little weird, but . . .”

Two people skidded into the room, one of them wielding a pair of scissors and the other holding a taser. 

“Holy crap, it’s just hair!” Cassandra said, hurrying over to Mike. “Why are you being like this?”

“We thrive on order,” Mike said, looming over Cassandra. 10k stood up just as the woman with the taser set it on Addy. She fell to the floor as everyone else carried on with their conversations as though nothing was happening. 

“This is crazy,” Cassandra said, “we’ve survived just fine doing whatever we want! You’re a cult.”

“Maybe,” Mike shrugged, “but we haven’t had a single death from a zombie since we put up the walls.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Cassandra said. She moved back over to 10k and grabbed his wrist. “Come on, we’re going.”

“The others—“ 10k said as Mike blocked their path. 

“They’re doing fine,” Mike said, “don’t worry about it.”

A gunshot rang out the floor above them. 

Cassandra pulled her fist back and punched Mike solidly in the throat. 

She dragged 10k past him as he curled onto the floor, gagging and spitting. 

She pulled her knife out of her belt and stabbed the woman holding the taser twice in the upper arm, in quick succession. She ripped the taser’s buds out of Addy’s back and let go of 10k to haul the woman up onto her shoulder. 

“Grab her other arm!” Cassandra barked, and 10k wrapped Addy’s arm around his shoulder as the woman with the scissors gave chase. 

“No one thinks this is weird?” Cassandra huffed as they ran past scores of people who continued on their business even as the three of them were obviously fleeing from something. 

“I’ll get to the top floor, you get Addy the hell out of here! If they start following you, keep running. We’ll find you eventually.” Cassandra said, letting Addy’s arm drop from her shoulder. Addy was starting to come around a little now, but she was still mostly dead weight. 

“God, this sucks,” Addy muttered as 10k dropped her to the ground unceremoniously. The man with scissors made a stab for him, and 10k dodged out of the way, shoving the heel of his hand under his chin and snapping his head back. The man staggered back a little and 10k grabbed his knife and stabbed him in the foot, yanking the knife out quickly as he started to scream. 

“The . . . the tasing or . . . or sort of the whole situation?” 10k panted as he shouldered the door open, grabbing Addy again. She was sort of supporting her own weight now. 

“Fuckin’ apocalypse,” Addy muttered, finding her feet. 

“Murphy!” 10k shouted across the yard, where Murphy was talking to the woman that 10k had bumped into this morning. “Murphy, we’re going! _Now!_ ”

“What? Why?” He yelled back, not even moving. “What’s wrong with Boudicca there?”

10k rolled his eyes. A window shattered somewhere above him and he glanced up on instinct to see a body falling on its back from the third floor. 

“Shit,” 10k breathed as he saw the body get back up and start running. It barrelled into a girl in a skirt and she screamed as it tore into her neck. 

Chaos exploded like napalm.

10k dragged Addy to the gate they’d entered. “Murphy, get your ass over here!” He barked, trying to sound threatening. Murphy raised his eyebrows and held up his hands, moseying over like he didn’t have a care in the world. 

10k shoved the gate open with his shoulder, the rusty hinges screaming over the human cries, nearly putting 10k on his knees. He gritted his teeth, bit his cheek hard enough he tasted blood, and kept going.

He found their truck where they’d parked it and opened the door, throwing Addy inside. He shut the door behind her and crawled up into the bed, propping his gun onto the roof of the truck. He looked down the scope, trying to get a clear shot. 

He didn’t see Murphy, and he couldn’t really tell the zombies from the humans, but he saw Roberta at one point. She had her gun in one hand and her machete in the other and was cutting through the crowd like a vision of death. 

10k spotted a zee sprinting up behind Roberta and he squeezed the trigger, the sharp _crack_ of the gunfire a familiar, grounding noise. The zombie collapsed to the ground and Roberta spun around, then turned back and shot him a thumbs-up.

He covered Roberta for a few more seconds until she found Murphy, then he turned to watch the door as Roberta dragged Murphy by the shoulder of his coat. 

Some survivors came out of the building, but no one he recognized. He kept his eye on the door as his hands started to go numb with dull, dawning panic. 

His throat got tight as the last few people trickled out of the building. He swallowed heavily and looked away from the scope. 

A hand clapped down on his shoulder and he jumped an inch off the truck bed. He whirled around, grabbing his knife, and stopped just a millimetre before he pierced Doc’s temple. 

“Jesus, kid!” He yelped, backing away with his hands up. “Sorry!”

10k breathed out a shaky laugh. “You’re alive.”

“I sure hope so,” Doc said, “who else is gonna treat Addy?”

“Did you see the others?”

“Warren’s the one who sprung me from that place,” Doc said, “didn’t see Murphy or Mack.”

“He was in the armoury, last I saw,” Addy groaned from the truck. “Feels like I just got struck by lighting.”

“Close,” 10k muttered. 

“I’ve been covering Roberta,” he added, “should I go back in there, or . . . ?”

“No,” Doc said, “look atcha, you’re practically crawling out of your skin. You can barely focus. You’d get bit soon as you stepped through that gate.”

“So we’re just supposed to wait out here for them?” 10k forced out. “What if they die?”

“They won’t,” Doc said, “it’s Warren.”

10k begrudgingly admitted that the overload was getting to him. His skin was feeling scratchy and too tight, and he couldn’t find a comfortable position to sit in. He was pretty sure if someone asked in a question, he wouldn’t be able to answer in more than monosyllables. 

He finally let himself pop his spaghetti sauce lid a little, trying to reassure himself with the thought that Doc had probably seen weirder things and Addy was in no state to notice. He focused on his breathing, like he’d learned through trial and error, and kept his eyes closed, trying to create as much sensory deprivation for himself as possible. 

He was so lost in his thoughts, he only realized the others had showed up when Mack thudded heavily into the bed of the truck. 10k didn’t jump as much as he could have. 

“You alright, dude?” Mack asked. 10k nodded, still feeling a little out of it. He drew his knees up around himself and pulled them in, putting as much pressure as he could manage on his ribs. 

“Those guys were crazy,” Mack said as Roberta joined them in the back. “God, another cult. Imagine our luck.”

“We’re lucky we got out of there alive,” Roberta said as she pounded the side of the truck with her palm a couple times. Doc started the engine and they took off, the screams of dying people fading into the background. 

Mack kept up an adrenaline-fuelled stream of chatter, going over everything he did and every suspicious activity the Reclaimers had done. 

“—knew it was too good to be true—“

“—and then I pull my gun out—“

“—never trust anyone who says ham is back bacon, _there’s a difference_ —“

10k tried to cover his ears as subtly as possible. The gentle vibration of the engine against his spine helped, but if Mack kept talking he was going to slap him.

“Hey, can you guys keep it down? I’ve got a headache,” Cassandra said, rubbing her forehead and glancing over to 10k while her eyes were covered. Mack shut up immediately. 

Cassandra squeezed 10k’s hand. 10k squeezed back, making a mental note to thank her properly later. 

She was a good person. One of the better ones 10k had come across. 

He was glad she liked him.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! I'll admit I was a little hesitant to post this one because I wasn't sure how well it would be taken, but this is a small fandom with not many fan fictions so I decided to roll the dice. hopefully you liked it! I'm always down for constructive criticism, so feel free to leave it!


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